Re: [LINUX_Newbies] Debian Lenny install monitor resolution glitch.

The issue that you are having in Lenny not changing screen size is because
you likely are running a plain vanilla vga display driver. To get higher res
you will probably need the proper driver. Open a terminal and type lshw and
scroll back to the section *-display and tell us what it says. You can
highlight and copy and paste (not the whole thing, just that section). Maybe
somebody with that specific graphics card can help you.

Debian is a great distribution, but it is not the best for working with
proprietary hardware issues. It is well known for supporting free drivers,
and proud of the fact that it does not use any proprietary codecs or
drivers. Things are going to get worse as they will be removing proprietary
binary blobs from the kernel. You need to either learn to go with it or
choose another distribution.

A good alternative distribution to try would be PCLinuxOS with a lightweight
desktop such as LXDE or Openbox. Crunchbang is also worth a look. Lubuntu is
a great lightweight Ubuntu derivative. Distrowatch is the place to go to
download. You will find that RAM is your biggest limiting factor in choosing
a lightweight distribution. How much do you have?

Roy

Using Kubuntu 10.10, 64-bit
Location: Canada

On 19 January 2011 16:41, tony mitchell <greenstar@care4free.net> wrote:

>
>
> I've been given a nice laptop, a Sony Vaio about 800Mhz. I wanted to
> install linux, and went through a lot of hassle getting a version to work.
> Many wouldn't boot from CD, Antix wouldn't mount CD or flash drive, Puppy
> was lightning fast and fantastic but wouldn't complete install. Ubuntu is
> too slow. After burning a spool of CD's I tried Debian 5.0 Lenny, which
> passed with flying colours, easy install, fast and all working ...... except
> it gives me 800*600 screen res, and preferences gives no option to increase
> to 1024 by 768, so have a ten inch desktop on a 14 inch screen. Silly
> really.
>
> I have googled for a fix. Not joking, this has been an issue for about four
> years. There's pages of discussion forums listed, all agree no choice in
> install and for some machines detection doesn't work, then the highest res
> given in the drop down in preferences is 800*600, and there's no way to
> change it.
> Went to terminal and tried about a dozen of these fixes from various user
> groups. None worked. Either the commands given were not recognised or was
> told 'permission denied' - but I was in root!
>
> Debian seems the most sussed linux version with a huge community
> maintaining and sorting. Tearing hair etc.
>
> Any ideas?
>
> Tony
>
>
>

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

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